State reports 3,682 new COVID-19 cases and 92 deaths

With nearly 9 million people in Florida receiving at least one dose of a vaccine, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases has stabilized.

Florida reported 3,682 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday and another 92 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,249,535 cases since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases had climbed as high as 17,991 on Jan. 8. On Tuesday it was 4,595.

South Florida

South Florida counties reported 1,362 new cases Tuesday.

Palm Beach County: 165 additional cases and 1 more death. The county now has 144,069 confirmed cases and 2,829 deaths, including 54 non-residents.

Broward County: 414 additional cases and 16 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 237,924 cases and 2,970 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 49 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 783 additional cases and 20 new deaths. The county now has 486,808 confirmed cases and 6,253 deaths, including 47 non-residents.

Testing and positivity

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. But since Oct. 29, Florida has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents.

The state reported a daily positivity rate of 6.11% on Tuesday, down from 6.14% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.

According to the state, the newly reported case numbers reflect the results of 60,382 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 51,344 results reported the day before.

The positivity rate in South Florida counties is now hovering between 5% and 6%.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 3,158 residents were reported Tuesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 5.73%. That’s down from 5.91% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 7,090 residents were reported Tuesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 5.67%. That’s down from 5.85% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 13,943 residents were reported Tuesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 5.64%. That’s up from 5.35% the previous day.

Deaths

The number of additional deaths from COVID-19 has been less than 100 for the last month. On Tuesday, Florida reported 92 additional deaths.

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 35,399 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 703 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Tuesday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.

Out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks No. 23 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 16 for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations

As of Tuesday, there were 3,086 people hospitalized in Florida

with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

In South Florida, Broward County reported 425 people hospitalized for Covid-19, Palm Beach County had 220 and Miami-Dade had 502.

Vaccines

As the vaccine rollout continues, more than 8.9 million people in Florida have received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In Florida, 2,567,339 people have received their first dose of the vaccine only, or about 11.95% of the population.

So far, 6,347,939 people have completed the series of doses required to be fully vaccinated. That represents about 29.56% of the population.